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Jun 15, 2012

Prevention of Cervical Cancer in Women

Researchers said - According to scientific discovery about cervical cancer is a long decades mystery and now they resolved how and where cervical cancer is rooted in the body and could lead to better prevention in the future regarding this cancer.

U.S. and researchers identified a unique stem-like cells, a portion of the cervix, when it is infected with human papillomavirus (HPV), then its responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. But in 1920 doctors in Boston, Massachusetts (northeast), had discovered a related phenomenon that emerged from the common practice of cauterizing the cervix and abnormal cells burn after the birth of a baby. Even then they realized that women who underwent this procedure almost never develop cervical cancer, but did not know why.

WHO estimates that about 530,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year worldwide and 275,000 die from this disease. But those deaths in countries like the United States are rare. The introduction of regular checkups and Pap smears in some Western countries since 1950 has reduced cervical cancer deaths by 65% ​​over the past four decades, according to WHO.

The researchers found that cancer cells is rooted near the mouth of the cervix in a transition zone between the uterus and vagina, known as the squamocolumnar junction.These cells are the remnants of embryogenesis, which is the process of cell division and growth that occurs when the embryo becomes a fetus. A similar population of cells has been found already in the esophagus, in a transition zone between the tube which transports food and the stomach.

The researchers hope that further study whether these cells can revalar other cancers linked to HPV, such as those affecting the anus and throat.